Apple confirmed in the release notes for iOS 27 beta 3 that the Home app’s new Apple Intelligence camera features will only work with a 2TB iCloud+ subscription, the most expensive storage tier Apple sells, according to developer documentation first detailed by Macworld.
The detail arrived quietly, tucked into developer documentation rather than a keynote slide, but it changes the math for anyone who already owns HomeKit Secure Video cameras. Apple has always charged for video storage. This is the first time the intelligence layered on top of that video comes with its own price floor, one that jumps past the plans most Home users already pay for.
TL;DR: iOS 27 beta 3 confirmed that Apple Intelligence features in the Home app, including motion summaries, cross-camera event grouping, and natural language search, require the 2TB iCloud+ plan at $9.99 a month. Lower tiers still cover video storage and camera limits, just not the AI layer. HomeKit video itself does not count against that 2TB, so the storage stays available for photos and backups.
What Apple Intelligence adds to the iOS 27 Home app
The Home app in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate gains three specific Apple Intelligence features for HomeKit Secure Video cameras. Written summaries now replace generic motion alerts. Footage from multiple cameras gets grouped into a single timeline when the same person or event crosses more than one camera’s view.
Natural language search is the third piece. Typing something like “package on the porch this afternoon” pulls up the relevant clip instead of scrubbing through hours of recordings.
Apple also raised the recording ceiling for supported cameras from 1080p to 4K in the same update. That upgrade applies regardless of which iCloud+ tier is active. The Apple Intelligence layer on top of it does not.
Why the AI features stop at the top iCloud+ tier
Apple’s new Apple Intelligence Home features work only with the 2TB iCloud+ plan, and iCloud+ has never been free for Home security users to begin with. The 50GB plan at $0.99 a month covers one HomeKit Secure Video camera. The 200GB plan at $2.99 a month covers up to five.
Only the 2TB plan at $9.99 a month has ever supported an unlimited number of cameras, and Apple has now attached its Apple Intelligence Home features to that same top tier exclusively.
| iCloud+ plan | Monthly price | HomeKit camera limit | Apple Intelligence Home features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50GB | $0.99 | 1 camera | No |
| 200GB | $2.99 | Up to 5 cameras | No |
| 2TB | $9.99 | Unlimited | Yes |
HomeKit video footage does not eat into that 2TB allotment. Apple stores security footage separately from photos, backups, and documents, so the full 2TB stays available for everything else. That is a genuine mitigating detail, not a marketing footnote.
Still, someone on the 200GB plan with three cameras cannot get AI summaries without a $7 a month jump, even if their storage needs never approach 2TB.
The cost pattern this fits into
The 2TB iCloud+ requirement is not an isolated pricing decision. Siri’s new voice customization sliders in iOS 27 already require an iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air, hardware most iPhone owners are not carrying yet.
Component costs pushed by the 2026 RAM shortage have made nearly every Apple Intelligence feature this year arrive with some kind of gate, whether that is a chip requirement or, in this case, a subscription tier.
A feature demoed on stage as an Apple Intelligence highlight will be invisible to a large share of Home users who assumed the video plan they already pay for covered it.
How Apple’s pricing compares to Ring and Nest
Apple is actually cheaper than the competition here. Amazon’s Ring Protect Pro, the tier that unlocks AI-generated activity descriptions on Ring cameras, costs $19.99 a month, and Google’s Nest Aware Plus runs about $20 a month. Both cost roughly double what Apple charges for the 2TB iCloud+ tier that unlocks its own AI features.
What is different is how Apple bundles the unlock. Ring and Nest sell a dedicated security subscription. Apple ties the Home AI features to general iCloud storage, so anyone already paying for 2TB for photos or device backups gets the feature at no extra cost.
That bundling cuts both ways. It rewards existing heavy iCloud users. It does nothing for someone who only wants smarter camera alerts and has no interest in 2TB of storage.
Whether the 2TB plan is worth it for your setup
Anyone running one or two HomeKit cameras with no interest in AI summaries can stay on the 50GB or 200GB plan without losing anything used today. Recording, motion alerts, and existing camera limits are untouched.
The upgrade makes more sense for households running four or more cameras, where scrubbing through separate feeds after a delivery or a backyard alert already eats real time. Grouped footage and plain language summaries solve a genuine annoyance in that scenario.
Apple Intelligence Home features arrive with the iOS 27 public beta, expected in July 2026, ahead of the September stable release. Anyone running the beta 3 build can already see the requirement listed under iCloud in Settings.
